Chuck Schumer lives in New York. Pat Toomey worked in New York in his 20s. And that's about where their similiarities end. But the outspoken, veteran Democrat and the fiscal hawk, freshman Republican teamed up Thursday on a jobs creation bill to help small and mid-sized businesses go public.

“In this struggling economy, Congress should do everything it can to make it easier for small businesses to grow and create new jobs," Toomey said in a statement. "This legislation will make it easier for firms to go public and in turn, create many more jobs. This legislation offers a bipartisan path for Congress to help get our economy moving again.”

The two senators held a press conference on Capitol Hill, and our friends over at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Early Returns has all the details:

Under the bill, companies with less than $1 billion in annual revenue could go public without having to comply with several cumbersome and costly regulations until they have grown their worth or until they have been pubblicly traded for five years. Those regulations include requirements to hire auditors and to hold stockholder votes on executive compensation.

The aim is to strike a balance between fairness for investors and opportunities for businesses to raise capital, Mr. Schumer said during a press conference in Washington today. Mr. Toomey said investors are protected by important disclosure requirements that would remain in place.

He said the legislation would allow companies “for a very limited period of time not to have to comply with the full panoply of regulations until they have grown to a point where they can afford it.”

The senators said access to capital is the biggest factor driving economic growth and job creation, and that better access to public equity markets would make a big difference to small and medium-sized companies.